COMMERCIAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2542, 26 February 1869, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

♦ Lyttelion 'limn Office. Thursday Evening. The Customs revenue collected;' to-day amounted to £24814s 9d. The following were the items:-Wine, 28} gals, £5 \M 7dj spirits, 894 gals, i's3 15s 61; tea 36301b5, £B9 sb; sugar, 22,40u1t0, m 6s Bdj photographic apparatus, 1 7s Ud; plain bigwrits, J cwt, U 6d; drapery, l prcl, fis; boots, 2 cases, £3 Us 3d; light dues, £2 19s lOdj merchant shipping fees, os; other receipts, 2s 6d. The land sales to-day amounted to 150 acres I rood, as follows -. Timaru district, 95'iicres; Waitangi, *5 do: Town of Geraldinc, 1 rood; Compensatiou, 10 acres; reali sing £2BO. A quarterly general meeting of the Chamber of Commerce was hell at three o'clock thfsj afternoon, Mr 11. P. M. Aynsley presiding, and Messrs Gould, Hassal, Palmer, Inglis, Curtis, Matson, Turner, Cobb, J. E. Graham (hon. sec.), Coster, and Walker, present, ifhe minutes of last quarterly, and a Special gerjeral meeting, were read and confirmed. MrR wood, of Lyttelton, was elected a .member of the c'amber, and the con&pbiia'ente (already published), which

had passed between the committee and the Hon. John Hall with reference to the new service was read. A desultory conversation ensued, but nothing of public importance was brought forward, and there being no other business to transact the meeting terminated. Otago.—The Daily Times of Feb. 22 contains the following :-Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co, report for the week ending the 20th inst., as follows: Fat cattle—none yarded—2o head sold at Waikouaiti, realised 3Ss per 100 lbs; fat sheepsales hare been more numerous than usual, but prices have not improved; prime mutton may be quoted at from 2d'to 2Jd per lb; fat lambs, 8s each. At Mr Thos. Jones's, Corner Bush, on the 17th,. sold fat wethers at 8s; do, eires. 7s; old ewes, 3s each; quiet dairy cows, from £9 to £l7 j heifers, £5 to £6 15s j calves, £2 17s 6d to £4; draught horses, £26 10s to £45. At Waitahuna, on the 20th, a large number of dairy cows from £8 to £lf> ; mixed yearlings, at £4 7s 6d. Horses-sold in their yards a consignment of 25 head light hacks, ex Airedale from Wellington, at from £6 to £l6. Market quotations are:-For heavy draught, from £4O to £4B; medium do, £25 to £3O; useful hacks and light harness horses, £ls to £2O; inferior, £6 to £ll. Two shipments have arrived during the week, consisting of 47 head, ex Wanganui, and 44 ex Beautiful Star, both from Wanganui; they are of a superior stamp to any recently landed here. Messrs RennieandMacgregor, millers and produce merchants, Jetty street, report -.—The following are the prices current: —Wheat, 5< to ss6dper busheljoats, 2s6dto2s 9dperbushel; barley, fine malting, 4s to 4s 6d per bushel, scarce; pollard, £7 per ton; bran, Is 4d per bushel; oaten hay, loosei £4 ss; trussed, £4 lOsper ton; straw, oat and wheat, £2 per ton; potatoes, provincial, old, none; new, £4 to £5, according to quality; chaff, £4 to £4 lOs per ton; carrots, none; turnips, onions, £ls per ton, scarce; hone dust, in good supply, at £l7 per ton ; corn sacks, 14s to 16s per doz, by the bale. Adelaide.—At the date of latest advices, Feb. 13, the corn market was very firm. Buyers of wheat were plentiful at 4s s}d,but holders asked higher rates. The following live stock report is from the Arqus of Feb. 15 :—Messrs Dalmahoy Campbell and Co. report:—Fat Cattle—ll34 head were disposed of to-day, This number was greatly in excess of the supply expected for the week, owing to various lots of paddock cattle coming forward from the immediate neighbourhood. There was a fair attendance of the town trade, but not many country buyers present, and at the opening sales, last week's currencies were obtained, but towards the close prices were slightly lower. The quality consisted of from inferior to prime, there being a fair proportion of good cattle amongst them, the best draft shown being of the FF brand from Colac, which were really prime quality but light weights, and, as usual, they brought the top average of the market. We quote best bullocks from £lO to £l2; second, £7 to £8; inferior, from £4 10s 6d ; best cows, from £7 to £8 2s 6d; second, £5 to £6; inferior, £3 to £4. Fat Sheep—22,679 came forward for the week, about 4000 of which were disposed of yesterday. At the opening of the market, for all really prime lots last week's prices were fully maintained, whilst later in the day a lull took place, and the salesmen had in many instances to give way from 6d to Is per head. Good to prime sheep were fairly represented, but about one-fourth of the supply were very little better than good stores, 1000 of which had to be turned out without finding purchasers. We quote:—Prime wethers, at from 10s to lis; good, from 8s to 9s ; medium, from 6s to 7s; good ewes, from 6s to 7s; inferior, from 3s upwards. Fat lambs: 809 forward, very few of which were good, and all of this description brought extreme prices, namely, about 2s 6d per head higher than last week's rates. We quote:—Prime quality, from 9s to 12s; second, from 6s upwards; and we sold a small draft for Mr Fairbaim at 12s. Store cattle: Since our last report we have only disposed of a small lotof young cattle near Deniliquin, at a fair price considering their ages, and, as we have already, stated, there will be little business done until there is a general fall of rain; the few who. have stock for sale are even now holding out for high prices, feeling confident that such will be obtained as soon as there is sufficient spring in the grass to give confidence to buyers. We quote mixed sexes over two years old, at from 50s to 60s; cows, from 4' 1 s to 50s; speyed heifers, from 50s to 655; all bullocks, over three years old, from 75s to 85s. Store sheep: During the past week there has been a greater disposition shown to purchase, six and eight tooth wethers being mostly inquired for, but as yet no business to any amount has taken place, and' quotations are still nominal." The following reports on the Melbourne wool market are from the Argus of Feb. 15, and are dated Feb. 12:— Messrs Hastings Cuningham and Co. report:—"Wool: The sale held at our stores this afternoon was well attended by the buyers, and nearly every lot in the catalogue was sold at prices which were quite equal to our late quotations. Greasy realised from sfd to 9§d; scoured, from to 14* d; fleece, from lid to lod. Sheepskins.—■ ur sale this morning attracted all the fellmongers and other buyers, who competed with spirit for the large quantity offered for sale. We disposed of nearly 8000 skins, at from 5Jd to 6>d per lb for dried New Zealand skins; loose skins, from 3s 5d to 3s 9d each; pelts from 6fd to l6d each; lambskins, from 7d to 14d each. Hides-We sold 3 5 prime hides averaging from 491b to 711b each, at from 18s to 22s 9d, and calfskins r from 4id to 4gd per lb. Tallow.—There were only a few samples of. inferior station tallow offered, which brought from. 31s to 34s 6d per cwt. Good mutton is worth from £36 to £37 per ton, and.mixed from £35 to £36 per ton.-Messra R. GoUsbrough and Co. report:—Wool.— The market continues brisk, and late rates are fully maintained. Our auction sale held tins day was well attended, and out of a catalogue of 649 bales, we sold 566 bales; greasy realising 6d to B|d,'and fleece lOfd to •Bfd per lb, the latter figure having been obtained for a clip of 74 bales. The Melbourne Leader of Feb. 13, contains the following agricultural report: -I he produce markets are without much change this week. Wheat still comes forward very slowly, and prices both of the grain and flour are maintained. Best' Victorian couhtry : flour is worth £l2 for new, and £l2 5s for old. Wheat has been sold at a range of from 5b 3d to 5s 6d, according to quality and terms. Oats are wanted, but most holders remaining firm at previous prices, not much business has been done; very few, if any, good oats are obtainable below 4s 3d, and as time rolls on the chances of our getting anything like a good supply from the seaboard become more and more remote. Maize is worth sa. Bran'realises Is 6d to Is 7d. Whatever the result of the harvest elsewhere it is daily becoming more clear that our own wheat crop will turn out much lighter than was antici ated a fortnight ago. The reports we annually collect from our correspondents throughout the colony, and which have been daily arriving since the Ist instant, leave no doubt whatever on the point. From a fifth of these correspondents whose communications came earliest to hand we have received corrections, necessitated by the results of thrashing. One estimate of fifteen bushels has dropped to ten or twelve; another of twenty has fallen to barely fifteen, and these figures ha* e reference to wheat. Oats are a bad crop in nearly every direction; in some districts the wheat crop is reported a third be ow the usual average; in others barely a half crop has been garnered, but the yields vary greatly, and the average will be a long way off the highest. In some parts of the Smeaton district the returns have been very satisfactory, but it is noteworthy that cro) s adjoining the good ones have in many caseß never been cut, ana this is not uncommon throughout the colony. On the Barrabools th..■ yield of wheat is said to be fourteen bushels per acre; this of course applies to the crops thrashed, and not to the extent pf land, sown. , In the Bame locality a few good crops of oats are recorded, but few are kept to ripen, the majority being;converted into hay.